Just as Jochen waited for good news from the American side, the good news came.

It's just that it's not the talent that Jochen expects has been found, but the Royal Petroleum Company's investment in the United States has borne fruit.

At the end of November 1890, oil was produced in the East Texas oil field in the southeastern suburbs of Dallas. The emergence of this super oil field, with declared reserves of nearly 700 million tons, immediately hit the US oil market. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company tried to buy the field. Jochen refused, and began laying tubing, increasing drilling, expanding production, and starting to build refineries in an attempt to break Standard Oil's monopoly in the United States.

The state of Texas, which is in the midst of an economic crisis, is very supportive of this investment that will increase GDP and solve jobs. Rockefeller knew that it was impossible to use the government's influence to make small moves to suppress the German crown prince's industry, so he could only stop fighting. Even more beneficial to Jochen is the enactment of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which gives Jochen more room to maneuver.

Royal Petroleum is a foreign company, so the impact of antitrust law on it is limited. However, to be on the safe side, Jochen also ordered the U.S. headquarters to be located in New Jersey, where out-of-state stock holdings are allowed. New Jersey, which believes that its stake in out-of-state companies brings huge tax revenues, has also welcomed the presence of the Royal Petroleumco.

On the other hand, Jochen began an operation to advance the anti-Tollas Act in Ohio, where Standard Oil is based. Ohio law prohibits any company based in this week from owning a stake in a company in another state, and it's only fitting that this crackdown on Standard Oil would be a hit.

Jochen was in Germany with the Royal Petroleum Company in the United States, waiting for Standard Oil to restructure and rebuild Ohio because of its antitrust violations. And when the oil fields in several other states are coming out one after another, Jochen will have more and more cards in his hand, and they will get bigger and bigger.

Want to compete? As automobiles begin to gain popularity and oil prices rise day by day, can Standard Oil beat and annex Royal Petroleum, which owns nearly half of America's oil reserves? Where did Rockefeller get so much money?

Jochen waited for Ohio to help himself start destroying Rockefeller's first steps.

While Jochen waited for news from North America, South America became restless. C in the ABC of South America caused a political crisis after A caused an economic crisis.

Although it is the C of the three ABCs in South America, Chile is the strongest country in South America at this time.

The three ABCs in South America all have their own unique and well-known economic conditions. Beef from Argentina, coffee from Brazil, saltpeter from Chile.

At this time, Chile was not the well-known copper producer with 40% of the world's reserves. Its abundant copper resources are still dormant underground. The backbone of Chile's economy that now makes Chile a South American powerhouse is the saltpeter exports, which at that time accounted for more than 80 percent of the world's trade.

In the saltpeter trade, the British occupy the lion's share, and it can be said that Chilean saltpeter has almost become the exclusive supply of the British. As a result, Chile became a British ban and was also deeply imprinted by the British, and was called the "British of South America".

But Chile has also reaped unimaginable wealth from it. Using this money, Chile built a powerful naval fleet. As early as 1879, during the Saltpeter War, there was a small naval battle between Chile and Peru, and in that naval battle, the Chileans eventually won and established Chile as the first naval power in South America. The ironclad turret ship and the ironclad central gunhouse ship, which appeared for the first time in actual combat, made this naval battle immortalized in the history of history as the first ironclad ship confrontation in the history of naval warfare in the world (Note 1).

This naval battle demonstrated the overwhelming superiority of ironclad ships over wooden warships, and it also made many European naval powers compete to study it, and Jochen also had a special course analysis at the Kiel Naval Academy.

However, any single economic system will make the country very dependent on foreign countries, and the collapse of Argentina some time ago is a lesson.

Of course, Chile also had visionary people, José Manuel Balmaceda became president of Chile in 1886, and he began to implement a series of policies to try to change Chile's monolithic economy and foreign dependence. During his tenure, Chile established a new industrial sector, began to improve the country's infrastructure, carried out educational reforms, established a railway transportation system, and borrowed money from Germany to implement its own grand plans.

But he was clearly offending by doing so. Balmaceda built a railway system that broke the British monopoly on the railways of the province of Tarapaca. This was the first and only time in the 19th century that loans were made to Germany that were not from the British. Balmaceda's series of actions were undoubtedly encroaching on the interests of the British.

In the end, Balmaceda also announced that all saltpeter resources would be nationalized, which was a complete stab in the lungs of the British. At this time, the British could make a lot of profits from the saltpeter trade in Chile, and the Liverpool Nitrate Company alone took more than a third of the profits. The British, of course, could not sit idly by.

And the Chilean Congress, which was filled with saltpeter merchants and political careerists, with the support of the British, began to oppose the president. And the parliamentary faction, which had the backing of the British, began to persecute Balmaceda in a tough way. The attitude of Balmaceda, who was unwilling to back down, led to the growing smell of gunpowder in Chile, and a civil war between the presidential and parliamentary factions was on the verge of breaking out.

Originally, Germany did not have much to worry about such a matter far away from the Pacific coast. There, the Germans don't have much zài feeling. Moreover, Chile is the territory of the British, and the Germans have little ability to meddle. But now it was different, and the German Far East Fleet, which had acquired British New Guinea and made Port Moresby its home port, had become one of the most powerful forces in the South Pacific.

Both sides in Chile were keen to find out the attitude of the Germans on the matter. The presidential faction wants German support, while the parliamentary faction wants Germans to be less meddlesome. Faced with secret contacts between the two sides, Germany naturally had to make a decision as well.

On January 10, 1891, Frederick III summoned Prime Minister Caprivi, Navy Damuntz, and Crown Prince Joachim.

Frederick III was the first to ask: "Can anyone tell me what is going on in Chile now?" ”

Caprivi bowed and replied respectfully: "Your Majesty, because Chilean President Balmaceda's series of political moves have violated the interests of many people in the parliament, and the British are also behind the parliament, the presidential faction and the parliamentary faction have officially broken down. ”

"So what do the Chileans want from the Empire?" Frederick III continued to ask.

"That's right, Your Majesty. At present, a part of the Chilean Army supports the president, while the Navy fully supports the parliament. And President Balmaceda hopes that he can get help from the Empire, and hopes that we can send the Far Eastern Fleet to contain the Chilean Navy, so that the army that supports him can have no worries. The parliamentarians, fearing the intervention of the Far Eastern Fleet and their insufficient armament, hoped that guns and ammunition could be purchased from the Reich. ”

"Who has the advantage between the two factions? What do you think, Leo. ”

"Your Majesty, although the Parliamentarians control the navy, their strength on land is very limited. But since saltpeter was controlled by the parliamentary faction, they were not short of funds. Although the presidential faction has some support from the Army, it is not all, and there are some people within the Army who are waiting and watching. Therefore, the presidential faction also called up volunteer militias, but if the funding problem is not resolved, it will be detrimental to the presidential faction if the time drags on. ”

"What is the reaction of other countries other than us?"

The British did not take a stand, but because of the Chilean saltpeter trade, the attitude of the British was self-evident. Moreover, His Excellency Admiral Latorre, a Chilean admiral who was visiting Wèn in England at this time, was also given a cold reception by the British because he was pro-presidential. The Americans, for their part, have made it clear that they support Balmaceda, but the Americans have limited power in the Pacific region, and their attitude is irrelevant. The only ones who can actually interfere in Chile are us and Britain. ”

"So what's your opinion? What can we do? ”

"Your Majesty, His Excellency Balmaceda has facilitated the loan to our country and has attached great importance to the relationship with our country. But if we support him, we will inevitably contradict the British, and I think it would be unwise. Therefore, I am proposing to be neutral, so that whoever wins will not affect our interests in Chile. "Caprivi is built to be both sides of the story. And Britain behind the parliamentary faction cannot afford to offend now.

"Munts, what do you think about the Navy?" Frederick III asked again.

"Your Majesty, although it is very difficult to speak, the Far Eastern Fleet does not have the ability to engage the Chilean Navy right now." "We've only been in Port Moresby for less than a year, and our footing in New Guinea isn't very secure. Moreover, the original Far Eastern Fleet was very weak. One Corolla-class light cruiser is now the strongest in the Far East Fleet, and there are two other small cruisers of the American Eagle class that can withstand the battle, and the others are some old ships. Compared to the Chilean Navy, we are completely inferior. ”

Note: The first ironclad confrontation here refers to an all-iron battleship, and if you include "ironclad" in a broad sense, the engagement of an iron-hulled wooden battleship in the American Civil War can also be called an "ironclad" engagement. However, in terms of the history of naval warfare, this naval battle between Chile and Peru was the real first ironclad engagement, and the Sino-Japanese War cannot be counted. In other words, it is more appropriate to call the First Sino-Japanese War the first ironclad battle.